Interesting suggestion. I have certainly seen examples, in Penn's collection, where there is a second and/or third scribal hand in a single manuscript that is clearly inexperienced and possibly that of a child. See for instance this record for a short work attributed to the Skandapurāṇa (Ms. Coll. 390, Item 1459):

http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/medren/record.html?q=scribes&id=MEDREN_5837501&

We also have an almost complete copy of the ṚgVeda (Ms. Coll. 390 Item 81) where three different scribal names are mentioned throughout the colophons of the text, two writing the text and a third adding the accents.

http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/medren/record.html?q=item%2081&id=MEDREN_5178685&

A comprehensive compilation of such records might well be illuminating with respect to manuscript workshops, etc.

Best,

Benjamin Fleming,

Visiting Scholar, Dept. of Religious Studies;

Cataloger of Indic Manuscripts, Rare Book & Manuscript Library;

University of Pennsylvania 249 S. 36th Street,

201 Claudia Cohen Hall

Philadelphia, PA 19104 U.S.A.

Telephone - 215-900-5744

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/religious_studies/faculty/fleming

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~bfleming

http://www.benjaminfleming.com

From: Allen Thrasher <alanus1216@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Allen Thrasher <alanus1216@yahoo.com>
Date: mardi 23 juillet 2013 22:56
To: Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] scribal self-recitation while copying

Pursuing Simon's comment, I wonder if there is any evidence that scribal workshops would ever produce many copies of a work at one time, with a single reader and a number of scribes. I believe this is attested in the Roman world, but can't give any citations. Presumably there would be a market for standard classics (e.g. the Gita) that in some circumstances would justify producing them in advance of specific individual orders. It is also possible that new works might gain a reputation generating a demand for many copies quickly, or that a patron might pay for many copies for free distribution. But everything I recall reading seems to assume that copies were produced singly. It need not even be a question of one person recruiting scribes so to speak off the street; it could also be a workshop of a scribe and his sons (younger brothers, nephews, etc.), a family operation.

Allen

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